Death Will Come (La Mort viendra, 2024) ‘Locarno’ Movie Review: Noir Drama Cranks Up Atmospherics but Fumbles in Character Work

It’s fascinating to encounter noir thrillers that aren’t entirely waylaid by an affinity for moody violence, so much so as it is drawn instead to an unfurling, deep-set sense of characterization that slowly and surely sucks you in. This genre situates itself in a moral morass, a bog of ethically crossed wires that affect into motion a series of contrivances. A reliance on too many frantic plot turns is supplanted by murky atmospherics, with characters’ deeper recesses hinted at for psychologically problematizing narrative action. Why does one do what they do? Can all answers be found with certitude and force? Christoph Hochhäusler’s “Death Will Come” heads to part the clouds on questions and doubts yet stays careful in incorporating a share of inscrutability.

Nothing can be entirely known and rendered psychologically comprehensible in its wholeness. Few things should be kept in the dark to maximize interpersonal intrigues and accord characters the dignity and vestige of layers undergirding palpable driving motivation. There’s a haze that wraps itself around the characters’ impetus. To uncover that becomes the quintessential propelling force of the narrative. Nevertheless, a patina of mystery is retained. This level of careful remove from the character’s inner world is critical to this film’s chilly austerity. The distance is strategic, one that throws us grasping in the shadows as we witness characters go at each other in ways both overtly menacing and slyly orchestrated.

The film opens with the killing of a courier, Yann (Pitcho Womba Konga). The mystery behind the murder kick-starts the design of the plot. Slowly, over the course of a seemingly tangled but lucidly clear narrative, crucial details transpire, offering definitive pointers to what all went down. It is through the perspective of a female hit agent, Tez (Sophie Verbeeck), dispatched by the boss, Charles Mahr (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), to get to the bottom of the case that we enter the film. She is the quintessential hardened hit agent, bullish and single-minded in her assigned mission. We are almost told nothing of her past. Her inner life is firmly kept out of view. She exists very much as a shadowy figure. The present is all that guides our understanding of her. Nothing else comes in the way.

The film doesn’t entirely abdicate a frenzied plot, though it seems to have been considered a lesser priority by Hochhäusler and his screenwriting partner, Ulrich Peltzer. Emphasis is placed on the intricacies of what threatens to slip out through your fingers. The film is especially besotted with etching many tense moments. That twisting sensation in the gut as one discovers that they might have been duped or worse, their life is imperiled is effectively highlighted in a couple of scenes. However, the film is admittedly bungled by an extravagant swiveling away from a plot and turning inward in an atmospheric stew.

The simmering undertow would have worked a greater heat and energy if at least some of the characters could rise above the thin trappings of having to lug the entire film along without the benefit of considerable depth to the dialogues they utter. Portions of the film drift into being a slog. The screenplay tends to make the action and narrative meander in circles, foolishly deferring an early realization of what the actual reason was that precipitated the central mystery. It doesn’t help that rival gangs barely register. Menace is doled out but not of a level that makes you fervid with dread and hold your breath.

Thankfully, “Death Will Come” has a scattering of levity and teasing that lifts the persistent dourness on display. Verbeeck’s steeliness stands the film in good stead, anchoring it confidently, though she doesn’t have the crutch of solid characterization other than being a journey with an end that couldn’t possibly be a pleasant one. On her staunch shoulders, the film rests, disquietingly captivating in spite of threadbare plotting.

La Mort Viendra ( Death Will Come) premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2024.

La Mort viendra (Death Will Come, 2024) Movie Links: IMDb, Wikipedia, Letterboxd, MUBI